In the Kitchen With: Willie LaRusso delivers a meatball lesson from great-grandma

By JOYCE VENEZIA SUSS

SPECIAL TO THE RECORD |

The Record

Wilhelmine "Willie" LaRusso is quite petite compared to her tall offspring, but when it comes to making meatballs, the great-grandmother stands head and shoulders over everyone in the family.

Wilhelmine “Willie” LaRusso teaching her great-granddaughters Myah Wolfer, 12, and Kali Wolfer, 16, how to make meatballs and gravy at the girls’ home in Ridgewood.

At age 91, Willie still makes her "meatballs and gravy" every Sunday. An aunt once calculated that Willie has made more than 60,000 meatballs, which are the centerpiece of celebratory meals for her family, including eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Family members gush about how special they are, but Willie is humble about the praise.

"I don't know what it is that's special, but everyone likes them, so I guess that's what makes it special," she says. "It's just that the family gets used to your meatballs."

"They are the best!" insists granddaughter Chrisi Colabella of Ridgewood.

A resident of Lyndhurst for many years, where she was a high school secretary, Willie now lives in South Jersey. The distance means that Colabella and her daughters, Kali and Myah Wolfer, don't get to enjoy Willie's Sunday dinners on a regular basis.

When Kali requested Willie's meatballs for her "Sweet 16" birthday party, Chrisi had one more wish: to have Willie teach her and her daughters how to make them — and the gravy.

Willie learned to make meatballs and gravy from her Italian father, but the "cooking gene" skipped a generation, she says.

"My daughters [including Chrisi's mother] weren't great cooks. They would rather go out, but they did come over every Sunday to eat!"

The Wolfer girls paid rapt attention as Willie demonstrated her meatball methods in their Ridgewood kitchen.

She poured a generous amount of olive oil into a frying pan, then added chunks of fresh sweet pork sausage.

"It has to cook over low heat. You don't want it to get brown too fast," she explained, looking up at her two tall great-granddaughters flanking her.

She added a handful of chopped onion to the pan and asked the girls to turn the sausage as it browned.

Into a large mixing bowl, Willie opened two packages of meatloaf mix, a blend of fresh ground beef, pork and veal. In went salt and pepper. "I don't measure. I just judge. But I guess all the grandmas say that," she said, cracking in an egg. She sprinkled in chopped onion, chopped parsley and minced garlic – again, no measuring – "I just know." Then she put both hands in the bowl to combine the mixture.

"You have to know the feel of the meat so it will stick together when you make the meatballs," she said, asking Myah to sprinkle in some Italian bread crumbs.

"How much?" Myah said.

"I have to look at it, then I will know," Willie replied. "If you don't get it at the right consistency, the meatballs won't be right."

Kali's job was to open and add three cans of crushed Italian plum tomatoes to a large pot.

"We need some water in with the tomatoes," Willie said, demonstrating how to swirl water around in each can to get every bit of tomato, which is then poured into the pot.

The browned sausages were added to the gravy before Willie showed Kali and Myah how to form meatballs.

"You have to make them rounder, girls," she said.

Where the flavor is

The lesson included Willie showing the girls how to turn the meatballs without breaking them, using a fork and a tablespoon.

"That's a good technique, Grandma!" Kali said.

The lightly browned meatballs – and a browned lamb bone – were placed into the gravy, along with every morsel left in the frying pan, "because that's where all the flavor is."

"And that just about does it," Willie said, tilting the pot cover a bit "for the steam to come out."

After the cooking lesson, Kali noted that her great-grandmother added "more herbs than I thought," but overall, "It surprised me how simple it was. We knew we had to learn it 'by hand' because that's how Grandma makes them."

Willie insisted her great-granddaughters will eventually master the techniques: "You'll get used to it. That's how I was taught."

The girls say knowing how to make Willie's signature dish won't change the frequency of their visits to her home in South Jersey.

Lightly browned Italian sausages (sweet or hot) can also be added to the gravy along with the meatballs.

Meatballs:

1 1/2 - 2 pounds meatloaf mix (beef, pork and veal)

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 egg

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley

Salt and pepper

Italian-style bread crumbs

Olive oil

Sauce:

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley

5 leaves of fresh basil, torn

2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes

Lamb shank or pork neck bones

Salt and pepper

For meatballs: Combine meat with chopped garlic and onion, egg, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle in bread crumbs to make the mixture just firm enough to roll into balls. Shape meatballs and fry in olive oil over medium-high heat on all sides until golden brown. Set aside.

For sauce: In a large pot, combine leftover olive oil from the pan used to cook the meatballs, garlic and onion over medium heat. Cook until garlic and onion are soft. Add parsley, basil and crushed tomatoes, stir to combine. Add lamb shank or pork neck bones and salt and pepper to taste, bring to a simmer and add meatballs. Cover partially and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, until meatballs are cooked all the way through.

Wilhelmine "Willie" LaRusso is quite petite compared to her tall offspring, but when it comes to making meatballs, the great-grandmother stands head and shoulders over everyone in the family.

At age 91, Willie still makes her "meatballs and gravy" every Sunday. An aunt once calculated that Willie has made more than 60,000 meatballs, which are the centerpiece of celebratory meals for her family, including eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Family members gush about how special they are, but Willie is humble about the praise.

"I don't know what it is that's special, but everyone likes them, so I guess that's what makes it special," she says. "It's just that the family gets used to your meatballs."

"They are the best!" insists granddaughter Chrisi Colabella of Ridgewood.

A resident of Lyndhurst for many years, where she was a high school secretary, Willie now lives in South Jersey. The distance means that Colabella and her daughters, Kali and Myah Wolfer, don't get to enjoy Willie's Sunday dinners on a regular basis.

When Kali requested Willie's meatballs for her "Sweet 16" birthday party, Chrisi had one more wish: to have Willie teach her and her daughters how to make them — and the gravy.

Willie learned to make meatballs and gravy from her Italian father, but the "cooking gene" skipped a generation, she says.

"My daughters [including Chrisi's mother] weren't great cooks. They would rather go out, but they did come over every Sunday to eat!"

The Wolfer girls paid rapt attention as Willie demonstrated her meatball methods in their Ridgewood kitchen.

She poured a generous amount of olive oil into a frying pan, then added chunks of fresh sweet pork sausage.

"It has to cook over low heat. You don't want it to get brown too fast," she explained, looking up at her two tall great-granddaughters flanking her.

She added a handful of chopped onion to the pan and asked the girls to turn the sausage as it browned.

Into a large mixing bowl, Willie opened two packages of meatloaf mix, a blend of fresh ground beef, pork and veal. In went salt and pepper. "I don't measure. I just judge. But I guess all the grandmas say that," she said, cracking in an egg. She sprinkled in chopped onion, chopped parsley and minced garlic – again, no measuring – "I just know." Then she put both hands in the bowl to combine the mixture.

"You have to know the feel of the meat so it will stick together when you make the meatballs," she said, asking Myah to sprinkle in some Italian bread crumbs.

"How much?" Myah said.

"I have to look at it, then I will know," Willie replied. "If you don't get it at the right consistency, the meatballs won't be right."

Kali's job was to open and add three cans of crushed Italian plum tomatoes to a large pot.

"We need some water in with the tomatoes," Willie said, demonstrating how to swirl water around in each can to get every bit of tomato, which is then poured into the pot.

The browned sausages were added to the gravy before Willie showed Kali and Myah how to form meatballs.